Arbitron Q2 up 31% (audio)

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ArbitronNet income for Arbitron’s Q2 increased 31.4% to $10.0 million, or $0.37 per share (diluted), compared with $7.6 million, or $0.27 per share (diluted), for the Q2 2011. Revenue for the quarter was $104.4 million, up 9.1% over revenue of $95.7 million during Q2 2011. Factors contributing to the increase include annual escalators in the company’s multi-year radio ratings contracts, in particular, the continued phase-in of contracted price increases for the PPM service as well as growth in revenues from the company’s cross-platform and mobile services. Costs and expenses for Q2 increased by 5.8% to $93.8 million in 2012 from $88.7 million in 2011.


EBITDA for the quarter was $23.6 million, an increase of 19.7% compared with EBITDA of $19.7 million for Q2 2011.

For the first half of the year, net income increased 16.5% to $27.8 million compared with $23.8 million in 2011. Earnings per share (diluted) for the first six months of 2012 was $1.02 compared with $0.86 for the first six months of 2011.

Revenue for the first six months of 2012 was $210.8 million, an increase of 7.2% compared to revenue of $196.6 million for the same period in 2011.

Costs and expenses for the six months ended June 30, 2012 increased by 5.3% to $169.0 million from $160.5 million.

EBITDA increased 12.4% to $60.2 million in the first six months of 2012 from $53.6 million for the same period in 2011.

William Kerr, Arbitron CEO, noted that the Discovery Channel signed on for their new cross-platform service to evaluate how its radio and television tune-in campaign delivered viewers to the 2012 premiere episode of The Deadliest Catch: “Our new promotion evaluation service takes advantage of the radio and television measurement capabilities of our existing PPM measurement panels.”

Arbitron Mobile also reached an agreement with iResearch, a leading online measurement company in China, to use its on-device smartphone and tablet meter technology to jointly operate a syndicated mobile media research service in mainland China, the world’s largest smartphone market.

Also, as just announced, the Media Rating Council accredited the PPM service in five additional markets, including Los Angeles. In total, the ratings data produced in 14 markets can now display the MRC double checkmark logo.

Listen to Kerr’s Q2 comments, below:

 

[audio:William-Kerr-071912.mp3|titles= William-Kerr, CEO, Arbitron]

 

For FY, Arbitron expects 2012 revenue to increase between 5% and 7% over its 2011 revenue of $422.3 million. It anticipates 2012 earnings per share (diluted) between $2.15 and $2.30, an increase of 8% to 15% over comparable 2011 earnings per share (diluted) of $2.00, which excludes the impact of an impairment charge of $0.07 per share (diluted) taken in Q4 2011. These estimates include an anticipated net investment of approximately $12 million pre-tax in Arbitron’s cross-platform initiatives and Arbitron Mobile in 2012.